There are numerous heterogeneous liquids that are comprised of constituents that have differing vapor pressure, wherein liquid and gas phases can be formed and preferentially separated. The high vapor pressure components are disbursed, and or solubilized throughout a bulk, low vapor pressure carrier liquid. Some of these heterogeneous liquid streams may contain commercially saleable liquid and gasses if the plurality of stream components can be separated and extracted at a reasonable rate and cost. Examples of separations of such heterogeneous liquids include the extraction of light end hydrocarbons (C1-C5; methane, ethane, propane, butane, and pentane and related species) from Crude Petroleum as produced at the wellhead, or other liquids.
The recent proliferation of Oil & Gas Production from Shale type formations 25 yield liquid product that has high Reid Vapor Pressure. These crude petroleum liquid products are not safe to transport. Therefore, expensive stabilization processes are required to extract the light end hydrocarbons to render the crude petroleum safe for transportation.
Current state of the art crude petroleum stabilization process facilities require the use of large, complex gas compression and expansion equipment along with large thermal transfer apparatus for chilling various vapor streams for subsequent condensation and recovery. These facilities are very capital intensive. Additionally, stabilization facilities require large scale processing to make the per unit volume processed economically viable. These crude oil stabilization facilities must, therefore, be constructed at collection gathering facilities and/or pipeline terminals.
High residual Reid Vapor Pressure of the crude oil produced by tight oil/shale type formations are characterized by having a substantial quantity of retained natural gas constituents of C1-C5 (methane, ethane, propane, butane, and pentane and other derivative species). The surface handling of these liquids between the wellhead and the stock tank typically utilize various means of lowering the fluid pressure to atmospheric. At each stage of pressure reduction, a quantity of gas is released. The final pressure drop stage to atmospheric pressure can yield in excess of 20 standard cubic feet per gallon of rich gas. This volume of rich gas vapor is typically released to the atmosphere contributing ozone-forming, ground level pollution.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,628, Logan; James R. (Moline, Ill.) describes a device for imparting sonic energy to a continuous flow of an emulsified liquid to de-emulsify the liquid and thereby provide for separation and extraction of selected liquid components. The device utilizes a flat plate oriented in the direction of flow within the liquid so as to impart pressure fronts into the liquid to produce the separation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,885,424, Davis; R. Michael (Fort Worth, Tex.), Hadley; Harold W. (Olds Alberta, Calif.), Paul; James M. (DeSoto, Tex.) describes a method for breaking an emulsion comprising oil and water into oil and water phases comprising treating the emulsion with a chemical demulsifier and passing the mixture through a hollow chamber having a uniform cross-section and subjecting the mixture to acoustic energy in the frequency range of about 0.5 to 10.0 kHz, preferably 1.25 kHz, to enhance breaking the emulsion into a water phase and oil phase. The oil phase is then separated from the water phase by gravity separation and recovered. The sonic energy is generated by a transducer attached to the mid-section of the upper or lower outer surface of the hollow chamber. For emulsions containing light oil having an API gravity greater than 20 and water, the emulsion can be broken by the use of acoustic energy in the frequency range of about 0.5 to 10.0 kHz without the addition of chemical demulsifiers.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,090,295, Raghavarao, et al., describes a method and apparatus for demixing an aqueous solution. The aqueous solution has at least two aqueous phases. The method comprises applying acoustic energy to the aqueous solution. The apparatus comprises a mechanism for applying acoustic energy to the aqueous solution until the aqueous solution is demixed to clarity.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,634 Raghavarao; Karumanchi S. M. S. (Boulder, Colo.), Todd; Paul W. (Boulder, Colo.) There is presented a sonic apparatus for degassing liquids. The apparatus includes a vessel for receiving and releasably retaining an open-top container and adapted to be closed with the container therein, transducer suspension structure positioned in the vessel, an ultrasonic transducer suspended from the structure and disposed in the container spaced from the walls and bottom of the container and beneath the surface of a liquid contained therein. The apparatus further includes a signal generator outside of the vessel for transmitting power to the transducer, and a vacuum pump for maintaining the vessel interior at a vacuum.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,757-Hall; Mark N. (College Place, Wash.) describes a gas stabilization unit that eliminates unwanted gaseous material and adds desired gaseous material from a fluid stream by applying sonic vibrations in two stages to create readily removable bubbles of the gaseous material. A siphon assembly located downstream removes the bubbles.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,371,385, Johnson; Steven H. (Lakewood, Colo.) describes a process where a liquid deaeration apparatus having a deaeration chamber, a positive displacement pump downstream of the deaeration chamber, a first flow restrictor upstream of the deaeration chamber, a low pressure sink connected to an air outlet of the deaeration chamber, and a second flow restrictor between the pump and the liquid outlet of the deaeration chamber to raise the pressure at the liquid outlet above that at the air outlet to cause volatilized gas to be removed via the air outlet of the deaeration chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,167 Barbee; Eugene Hartzell (East Rochester, N.Y.), Brown; Robert Cushman (Rochester, N.Y.) describes a process where bubbles are eliminated from a liquid such as a photographic emulsion by passing the emulsion through a horizontal tubular container while pulling a vacuum on the container and subjecting the emulsion to ultrasonic vibrations from an ultrasonic transducer having a horn located in a well in the bottom of the container. Emulsion is pumped out of the container and delivered through a conduit to the point of use. The delivery circuit can include a secondary gas separation chamber which also has a transducer horn therein. Provision is made for selectively recycling part or all of the emulsion back into the well. The container can be operated either partly full or completely full of liquid. Provision is also made for cleaning the internal walls of the apparatus by injecting a swirling stream of liquid into the tubular container to flow through the container and downstream portions of the system.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,133,300 B1, Grant; describes in some embodiments, a chamber may be configured to separate oil and gas. For example, the oil and gas may be separated as they exit a compressor, an oil storage tank, etc. In some embodiments, the gas may be a heavy gas and the oil may be compressor oil. One or more heated baffles may interact with the oil and gas to increase the velocity of the gas flow to inhibit the gas from absorbing into the oil. In some embodiments, when the compressor feeding the chamber is operating at a decreased compression rate, the chamber may continue to heat the oil to vaporize impurities out of the oil. The impurities may then be vented out of the chamber through the bleed valve to a gas inlet scrubber.